Leyte cops serve arrest warrants on Kerwin

MANILA, Philippines - The Baybay, Leyte police served two arrest warrants for murder against self-confessed drug lord Kerwin Espinosa yesterday.

Inspector Ananias Monteroso of the provincial police anti-illegal drugs special operations task force hand-carried copies of the warrants to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila, where Espinosa is currently detained.

The NBI Security Management Division received the warrants at 11 a.m.

Espinosa’s father, slain Albuera mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr., was in the Baybay, Leyte sub-provincial jail when police officers from the Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) Region 8 served an arrest warrant on him and killed him when he reportedly resisted arrest.

One of the warrants indicated that the younger Espinosa, along with Jesus Tulin alias “Loloy,” and Brian Anthony Zaldivar alias “Tony Pet,” should be brought by any officer of law before Judge Carlos Arguelles of the Baybay City Regional Trial Court Branch 14.

The STAR earlier reported that Tulin and Zaldivar were arrested at their residence and hideout in Ormoc City, respectively. 

Charged for deaths of witness, councilor

Espinosa and the two suspects were tagged in the 2014 killing of Gregorio Velarde, a witness in the murder of school bus driver Restituto Soria in the same year.

Velarde was shot as he was waiting for a bus minutes after he filed a complaint against the workers of the Zellan Resort and Spa, which was owned by the elder Espinosa.

Soria was shot dead near the Zellan Hotel after he allegedly overtook the Nissan Navarra owned by the slain mayor.

Intelligence reports obtained by The STAR showed Tulin was the younger Espinosa’s hitman while Zaldivar was in charge of the distribution of illegal drugs in Albuera and Baybay City.

The other warrant ordered the arrest of Espinosa, Max Miro and Stephen Bobares alias “Galo” for the killing of newly elected councilor Vicente Jabon, former chairman of Barangay Doña Maria.

A report from The FREEMAN said Jabon was shot dead motorcycle-riding men before he could even take his oath as councilor.

Former Albuera mayor Ramon de la Cerna Jr., who lost to slain mayor Espinosa in the 2016 elections, told The FREEMAN that Jabon was no longer interested in sitting in the town council, and that his child had urged him to migrate to the US.

De la Cerna eyed politics as the motive for Jabon’s killing.

The warrants were dated Jan. 5. Aside from the NBI, copies of the warrants were given to the chiefs of the Albuera and Ormoc police, chief of the CIDG at Camp Crame and the Bureau of Immigration.

Monteroso said Espinosa asked if there would be more arrest warrants to come.

He said it would be up to the Department of Justice and the NBI to decide whether to have the younger Espinosa sent to the Baybay City court.

Espinosa was admitted to the Witness Protection Program after he claimed that he gave P8 million to Sen. Leila de Lima through her driver-bodyguard Ronnie Dayan.